


Comically

by TeamEmma



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Clueless!Liam, Coffee Shops, M/M, Porn With Plot, Professor!Zayn, Student!Liam, smut but not that smutty
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-29
Updated: 2013-08-29
Packaged: 2017-12-25 00:09:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 20,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/946336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TeamEmma/pseuds/TeamEmma
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zayn is a professor and also renown Comic book writer.</p><p>Liam is his nervous, bumbling student who needs this English class to graduate.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Comically

**Author's Note:**

> So this was like bothering me the whole time I was writing my other work, and so I really had to write it.
> 
> I would just like to thank the person who beta'd this because I forced them to read it even though they are strictly Ziall!
> 
> This is my first time trying to write smut and it was just a mess! I don't know if I can write it - ever! Thanks to the person who helped me write it ;).
> 
> Comments are welcomed! But don't hate me because I know nothing about the uni system, but I know a lot of the U.S. university systems, and yes, there is a comic books as literature class! :)
> 
> I also realized that I finished this work on Liam's birthday.
> 
> \- Emma

It’s the day before Liam’s fourth and final year at his uni. He sits in his rotating chair staring at his computer screen for quite a while looking at nothing in particular. He’s surprised and impressed at himself for making it this far because to be honest, Liam is not the most intelligent person; it takes him a little (read: a lot) longer to grasp concepts than his peers do. Actually, if he were asked to describe himself to anyone, it would just be ordinary – from his nearly shaved head, to the slightly rectangular angles of his face, to the way his eyebrows furrow when he was confused about something (which was quite often).

 Since he knows he lacks in the intelligence department, Liam works extremely hard just keep up with the curriculum while paying his way through college at the local coffee shop.

There have been several occasions where Liam has often neglected his course work because he’s so tired from a grueling day of work. The best and worst thing about his job is that they open late since they are located right in the heart of campus for those college students who stay up at ungodly hours and need a caffeine fix.

He doesn’t get enough scholarships to pay for everything (like he said, not the brightest, and sometimes, they don’t award people for “working hard”), and Liam’s mother tries her best to give him everything in her power, but as a single mother who works minimum age with other mouths to feed, Liam feels extremely guilty whenever he asks for money, so he doesn’t.

 _Just one more year_ , Liam thought _._ One more year of sitting through criminology classes and he can apply to firefighter training, and he’ll finally be able to help people the way he wants to – being close to becoming someone’s superhero.

Liam decides to do something useful with his time and looks at his course schedule. He had tried to avoid any writing or English class during his time at uni knowing that he is awful at spelling and writing. But at the end of July, his counselor pulled Liam into his office and said that he had to take a basic writing class in order to graduate.

Liam had no choice to agree because he has failed so many written tests that allowed him to skip the coursework. He thought it shouldn’t be that bad because the class topic was Comics as Literature, and how bad can that be?

He turned to his roommate of four years – the one with dirty blonde hair, the bluest eyes Liam has ever laid his own on. Liam’s side of the room is plain with no posters on the wall, but his roommate’s side is decorated with posters of Katy Perry, pictures of food, and a guitar hanging on the corner of the room. His roommate’s wardrobe consists of tanktops and snapbacks while Liam’s wardrobe is filled with white or black t shirts and faded jeans. Liam’s pretty comfortable with himself – he likes things simple so he doesn’t feel like dressing up is absolutely necessary.

Liam notices that his roommate is always eating, and this time, he has a sandwich in his right hand and a computer mouse in his left. Liam tries not to giggle as he notices the mayonnaise on his roommate’s lips when he says, “Hey Niall, have you ever had Professor Zayn Malik?”

Liam had always been a little bit shy, but on the very first day of uni when he moved into his dormitory, he had found Niall sitting on a bed he already claimed with a backwards snapback and a tanktop that was too revealing eating a bag of chips. He had introduced himself and took Liam’s moving boxes right out of his hands (mouth still full of chips), and berated him with a multitude of questions.

After that, they have been inseparable because Niall is a nervous ball of energy who doesn’t know personal space, and Liam is the type to absorb everything in like a human sponge furrowing his eyebrows whenever necessary. So Niall talked to fill in the gaps of silence that Liam thought was never there.

Oh, and not to mention that personal space has been thrown out the window since living with Niall. Liam often found Niall breathing down his neck, and this one time even woke up to Niall sleeping next to him (as normal as can be) in his own bed while Niall’s bed remained empty.

Niall shook his head, “Nope, try ratemyprofessors.com and see if he pops up,” Niall lazily walks over to Liam peering over his shoulder as Liam types Malik, Zayn. Liam can practically smell the bologna, mayonnaise, and ketchup on his breath.

Liam looked at his screen and scrolls through the M and finally notices a little green smiley face next to Malik, Zayn’s name. He sees that there are about three hundred total ratings (which Niall mentions is a lot for any professor), an overall rating of 4, but an easiness of 2.5. Well, looks like he’ll be struggling in this class. He can’t wait for that to happen. Liam also notices a little red pepper at the very end, “What’s that for,” he asks Niall as he points to the screen.

“That means the professor is hot,” Niall giggles, “It’s unfair really – to be hot and smart, click on his name to see if he has a picture.”

Liam did as he was told, and Niall was right. It is _unfair_. Liam cannot believe that the face looking back at him was of a professor. Whoever this Zayn Malik was, he looked like he was a high fashion model.

He looked at Niall and blushed a little as if he was just caught stumbling onto porn. Professor Zayn Malik didn’t even look that much older than Liam, but he had the sharp facial features that Liam always admired because his face did not look like that _ever_. This Zayn had the longest eyelashes ever that revealed hazel eyes that seem to smolder the camera so much that Liam thought he was burning up just looking at him. His hair was molded in jagged spikes, and he had stubble running from his sideburns that made his chiseled cheekbones eve more defined.

“You’ve got to be joking,” Liam gasped as Niall wolf-whistled at the screen.

“That man can turn me,” Niall finally said as he walked back and fell on his own bed.

“It is unfair,” Liam says – pouting, “Is he a model or a freaking professor?”

“Well, you can look at it in two ways, mate: you can either try really hard to impress your hot professor or you can say something really dumb and get distracted by those eyes.”

Liam shuts down his laptop and lets out a big sigh – succumbing to his fate, knowing that he will probably make a fool of himself in front of one of the finest English specimen that he has ever laid eyes on. He’ll probably stumble on his words when called on and his hands will sweat profusely.

He slumps into his bed, nervous and jittery now, as he tries to get some sleep in before his 7 A.M. shift. He tries not to dream about his professor too much, but fails obviously. Stupid brain.

*

Liam has always been an early riser; he does his morning routine of taking a brisk jog in the autumn weather. The weather this time of year is cold, but wearing a sweatshirt with his uni logo and sweatpants always keeps him warm enough. He likes early mornings because the campus is quieter and there’s no one to bother him on his daily run.

He gets back, showers, and puts on his work uniform while Niall still remains dead asleep probably dreaming about his next meal.

If he’s lucky, he can get off a little early so he can grab something to eat before his afternoon class with Professor Hot Malik (which hey, it’s not clever, but it gets the point across).

Arriving for his 7 A.M. shift, he already sees Harry cleaning out and preparing the usual stuff for the morning rush.

He greets a little too chipper and Harry responds with a grumble. Liam never realizes that it is probably only him who is an early riser and an annoying morning person. Harry and Liam would describe the coffee shop as quaint – only two tables inside the small area with only a few drinks a person can order. The walls are painted a dark red, and Liam is here as often as he is at his room.

“First day of class?” Harry grumbles as Liam helps bring out the coffee and the scones.

“Yeah, I’m excited!” Liam has never asked why Harry still works at a uni coffee shop when Harry has never even been enrolled on the campus.

“Good on you, mate,” Harry snips, brushing his mess of curly locks trying to tame it, but it never works, “Sorry, we cannot all be morning people like you Liam,” Harry smiles widely like he always does. Liam is quite fond of Harry because Harry has covered his shifts a few times whenever he had to cram for a test or write an excruciatingly long (meaning it was more than 2 pages) essay. He decides that he likes Harry in the afternoon shifts more because Harry is all smiles then, and he’s all frowns now.

Work is hectic as usual, and by the time 10:30 rolls by, Liam is already standing there like a robot taking orders without actually thinking.

He hears a slew of profanity followed by the clanging of dishes hitting the ground, he peers into the back of the coffee shop and asks, “Everything okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine!” Harry shouts back, “Deal with the customers!”

Liam whips his head back and he swears his knees were made of jello or something because he almost falls down as he sees none other than Professor Zayn Malik staring back at him with his long eyelashes and fifty shades of different hazel (yes, he just made that reference) and the warmest smile he has ever seen.

“H..hi, what can I do for you?” _Besides bending down on my knees and getting you off,_ okay so Liam might’ve not gotten laid throughout his four years at the uni because all the girls wanted him, but none of the guys ever did. And even when the guys did, Liam didn’t know what to do because he would’ve blushed so badly that it ended up with the guy being so appalled and so awkward that one of them would retreat immediately. So Liam’s never had a relationship, never been close to having one, and he’s bound to have inappropriate thoughts, okay?

Liam chokes out, “I mean, what can I get…for you?” _Smooth, Liam,_ _smooth_. _Be as inarticulate as possible to your English professor._

Zayn seems unfazed by Liam’s inability to function around words and just smiles (Liam decides that he should be banned from smiling). Liam takes this moment to take in Hall of his professor. He’s wearing a double-breasted grey pea coat with a black oxford shirt and a striped red tie underneath. And Liam thinks that he could just die right now of embarrassment and the hotness that is his professor. He looks so ordinary compared to his professor that it was almost rude to be in his presence.

“What do you recommend?” Zayn asks earnestly, _Jesus Christ, please just order, don’t make me speak anymore_ , “Not really a coffee person, but need it for the first day of work.”

“Do you like your coffee bitter or sweet?” _With a side of me, perhaps?_

“Sweet,” Zayn says still gazing at Liam. Liam can feel his face getting hot and all he wants to do is run through the back wall and away from Zayn’s gaze forever.

“White chocolate mocha, hot?” Liam stumbles.

Zayn licks his lips, _stop, please, stop, “_ Perfect.”

“Can I have your name?” Liam already knows it, but how dumb or creepy would it have been if he just shouted out Zayn’s name without ever asking for it.

“Zayn, do you go to school here?” He says to Liam as Zayn digs in his back pocket to take out his wallet.

“Y…yes,” Liam says.

“Oh, I’m a professor here. How come I’ve never seen you in one of my classes?” Zayn inquires.

“It’s a big campus,” Liam nods. He didn’t want to sound pretentious, but Liam has a problem with words and everything comes out wrong, and he just wants Zayn to look at him forever, but at the same time, he could probably melt right now with Zayn’s complete focus on him.

“Oh,” Zayn says, looking a little taken aback as he places his money on the counter, “Of course.”

 _I’m going to hell_ , Liam thinks as he turns around to prepare his professor’s drink. He sees Harry leaning against the backdoor with a shit-eating grin that makes him blush a bright pink, “Don’t even start.”

Harry whispers, “I know you stumble a lot on your words, but man, can you be any more obvious?”

“Shut up,” he says mutedly.

“White chocolate mocha for Zayn!” Zayn is smiling at him now as he approaches the counter for his drink. He reaches for his drink. Liam is feeling bold, so he lets his fingers touch Zayn’s as he gives him the drink, _I’m pathetic._

Zayn takes a sip of it, “It’s delicious, Liam!”

Before Zayn can leave, Liam blushes and stutters, “How…how did you know my name?”

Zayn looks at him quizzically and points to the name tag on Liam’s chest. Harry is straight up cackling behind him now, and yup, he is dead. He can just die of embarrassment right now and he would go willingly.

Before he knows it, Zayn Malik is out the door with a giant grin on his face. _He probably thinks I’m an idiot; he’s probably right_.

He doesn’t even want to look at Harry right now because he’s still laughing, “I’m leaving. I’m going to die in peace now.” His shift is over anyway, and he has to see Zayn again in about an hour. He has to compose himself before he makes a fool of himself again in front of the hotness that is his professor.

“Aw come on, mate!” Liam is already half way out the door as Harry walks to the cash register to help the line of customers, “It wasn’t even that bad! He probably didn’t even notice!”

*

Liam sits in the way back row of Zayn’s class because he doesn’t want Zayn to look at him because he knows he will be a hot mess with sweaty palms and face flushed like a cherry if Zayn does. His uni is designed so that some of the back walls are actually large scale windows facing the middle of campus. It’s a huge lecture hall, so if he was lucky, Zayn wouldn’t even look at him or notice him, but Liam really wants Zayn to look at him. _When did I turn into a fangirl?_

He hears the girls in front of him giggling to themselves as they look up Zayn on the same website Liam did, “He’s so hot,” one of the blonde one says to the brunette. The brunette responds, “Duh, why else did I take this class?”

It’s nice to know that Zayn makes other people feel this way. He would actually be surprised if Zayn didn’t know how he made his students feel.

It’s two minutes before class starts, and the lecture hall is stuffed with students – so many that some of them had to stand in the aisles – both girls and guys alike. This Zayn guy must be pretty popular on campus, or maybe some of the students had to take this as a requirement like Liam had to. An older girl with shockingly purple hair and a gorgeous face enters first and seems to be laughing a little bit too enthusiastically. Zayn trickles in after her, and Liam can see the girls in front of him squeal.

The girl with the purple hair touches Zayn’s arm affectionately, and Liam glares daggers at her.

He takes off his pea coat in front of class, _please take off more_ , and takes out a stack of comic books and lays it out on the table. He then flawlessly puts his hands behind him and hauls himself up onto the table. He unbuttons his dress shirt sleeve to reveal a shocking array of colorful tattoos. And in that moment, Liam probably thinks that Zayn knows exactly what he is doing and knows exactly how he affects everyone around him. Zayn absolutely ruins Liam, and Zayn probably knows this with his badassery and his intelligence.

“My name is Zayn Malik,” he starts off, putting his hand to chest, “You can call me Professor Zayn, Zayn, but no Professor Malik or Mr. Malik – that is my dad.”

Liam swears he can hear the brunette whispering, “I wish I can call him daddy.” And Liam is blushing at that.

“Even though this is a Basic English class, I expect you to work hard. I expect no less than your best.” He says, stepping down the aisle. Liam is praying that Zayn doesn’t notice him as he is fidgeting in his seat forcing his hands to not sweat when looking at Zayn, but it’s impossible.

“I expect you to attend my class everyday with the finished assigned reading ready to discuss,” Zayn says walking up and down the middle aisle, “I am a huge nerd, and comic books are my specialty. If I _ever_ feel like you are disrespecting literature, you will incur my wrath.” The look that Zayn gives make some awkward freshmen shift around in their seat nervously, but all Liam can think is how hot Zayn looks, and how much he wants to tear off Zayn’s clothes.

“Now, we have my wonderfully intelligent T.A.,” Liam realizes he hates her now as Zayn points to purple-haired girl in front of the class. Liam is not alone in his hatred as he can see girls and guys glare at the girl in front with unabashed disgust, “Perrie Edwards. Could you be a darling and pass out my syllabus.”

She waves at the class, says that she’s very excited to be Zayn’s T.A. and she announces her office hours as she goes down the aisle, “Now if anyone wonders whose office hours they should go to, mine or Perrie,” he says as his eyes squint when he smiles, “I have cookies – no bribery though. I wouldn’t be wounded if you went to Perrie’s instead – she is very knowledgeable among other things.” Liam decides that he definitely hates her.

“Now, before I dismiss early, I want to ask a few questions to get to know you guys,” Zayn says as he reaches the front of the room again and sits on the table.

“What’s your favorite superhero?” Zayn asks, “Raise your hand please.” The room is completely quiet and no one raises their hand – hesitation seeps in because although Zayn is young, he is very intimidating, “Now, now, come on, don’t be shy.” He smiles and surveys the classroom.

 _Please, please call on me, no please don’t call on me, please call on me, no don’t, I would die._ Liam’s hand raises without him even thinking, _shit, shit, shit_.

“I see a familiar face in the crowd,” Zayn says smiling from ear to ear, “Mr. Liam, who makes a wonderful white chocolate mocha by the way,” And this is it, Liam thinks, this is how he is going to die  - a slow death by embarrassment. He notices all of the lecture hall’s eyes on him – some glaring while others are wondering curiously. The talkative girls in front of him look at with such malice that he grows a bright, beet red, “What’s your favorite superhero, Mr. Liam, what’s your last name?”

“Liam Payne,” Liam says it so quietly that he wonders if anyone has heard him.

“No really,” Zayn jests and Liam just shrugs, “With a last name like that, you should be a comic book villain even though you look too wholesome to be anything but good.” Liam looks at Zayn incredulously. He figures he is going to keep a tab on how many times Zayn will compliment him, so far it is a whole whopping of one time, “Well, Mr. Payne,” he says through chuckles, “What’s your favorite superhero? Or villain if you’re into that sort of stuff.”

“Bat…batman. I am Batman,” he stutters, “I mean, I like Batman. Batman is my favorite. Superhero. I mean, I’m just gonna shut up now.” The whole class bursts out laughing and Liam shrinks deep into his seat. But not once does Zayn breaks his focus from Liam – his attention is not on the class, but directly at Liam. He’s always been bad at public speaking, but he’s never been this bad. He blames it on Zayn.

“That’s very good, Liam,” Zayn nods his head, “We will be reading a Batman comic, so look forward to that. At least he had the courage to raise his hand.  I expect everyone to raise their hands next time, is that understood? Now before you leave, I want to have a 500 word essay on your favorite comic superhero by the next time we meet. Not too bad, right? Class dismissed.”

Liam stuffs everything in his backpack and books it out the door, but not before he hears the girls in front of him groan, “Homework on the first day? Are you kidding me?” Liam doesn’t want to see any of his classmates, doesn’t even notice that Zayn is looking at him earnestly, he’s humiliated himself and he is trying his best to think of any excuse to not go to class on Wednesday.

*

After his classes, Liam decides that he should go to the book store to pick up all the books that are required.  He immediately regrets his decision because the book store is filled with people. He bumps into at least five people who just grunt and grumble at him – except for the girl who blushes at him, but he doesn’t take notice of that. He is in the Comic Books as Literature section and thanks the higher powers and Zayn for having used books. He can’t afford new ones, but he would love to keep these comic books.

The course reading has comics he’s never even heard of before from “Maus” **,** “Sandman”, to ones he’s had heard of: "Watchmen", "The Walking Dead". He’s already trying his hardest to meet tuition deadlines and extensions, and his scholarships are running drastically low. He notices that one of the comic books is at the top shelf; Liam figures that the employees are probably all busy so he gets on his tippy toes.

He grabs the book, and the next thing he knows he has managed to knock all the books on the top shelf to the floor. He hears a loud, “Oi!” and looks down to see none other than Zayn Malik in a crouching position. _This would happen to me._

Zayn immediately looks up at him, a look of fury across his face but softens when he realizes who it was, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, sorry Professor Zayn, I’m sorry. Why do I do this?” And Liam is a bright red, why does this always happen to him? Why does he become a complete idiot around this guy.

Zayn just stands up, brushes off his pants, “It’s quite alright, Liam,” and Liam should not like how Liam’s name rolls of Zayn’s tongue.

“I’m just gonna…” Liam trials off and points at a direction that is opposite of here.

“So you’re just going to concuss me and leave?” Zayn says slightly teasing.

“I’m sorry,” Liam is pretty sure that he has more than two words in his vocabulary, but his mind is blanking on him.

“Do you need help with your books,” Zayn completely ignores that Liam is a bumbling idiot right now, and Liam is quite grateful that where Liam lacks tact, Zayn is full of it.

“No thank you,” _just let me get out of here_ , “Don’t want to bother you.”

“Alright, Mr. Liam,” he says in a sleepy manner with eyes lazily open, “I’ll see you on Wednesday. Or maybe I’ll stop by for your fine white chocolate mocha.”

“Yes,” and Liam just turns sharply around and leaves without saying goodbye because he’s an idiot and he really wants to get out of there before he implodes from embarrassment.

“G’Bye!” Zayn shouts, Liam doesn’t look back because he’s pretty sure that he will have a permanent shade of red on his cheeks.

*

When Liam finally treks back to his room with a bag full of books – luckily his other classes are not filled with embarrassment and Zayn Maliks who exist solely to ruin him, he just grunts to Niall’s greeting. Niall has a sandwich in his hands with chips on his desk. He collapses face first onto his bed.

“Rough day?” Niall says through munches and crunches of chips.

He just grunts a response, and he hears Niall crawl up to him in bed, “You smell like food, Niall.”

“Food and nice things, Liam.” Niall nuzzles himself to the opening of his neck and enlaces their legs together – clearly platonic, “If only you were a girl, I could think of different ways to destress you.”

Liam lets out a small chuckle and Niall’s so close that Liam almost startles when he hears Niall’s voice, “Do you want to talk about it?”

He really doesn’t want to, but he knows that Niall will not leave him alone until he does, “I met Zayn; made a fool of myself to the whole class, nearly gave him a concussion, you know, the usual.”

Niall giggles, “Well, sounds like someone has a crush.”

Liam snorts, “How was your first day?”

“Same old – tons of reading already,” Niall says still nuzzled next to his neck, “makes me hungry.”

“You’re always hungr-ow! I’m not food!” Niall slides off the bed – happy with the little bite mark that he left on Liam’s neck.

Liam groans and decides that he should start on his essay for Zayn’s class. He never does his assignment early, but he really wants to impress Zayn Malik, okay?

*

Tuesday morning gets terrible – no Zayn sighting at the coffee shop. He ran extra hard that morning because he really wanted to impress Zayn even though he knows that the extra mile is not going to do anything for him except tire him out.

He gets mail to see his counselor about financial aid Wednesday after class, and he puts it to the back of his mind because he’s already swamped with reading and rewriting his Superhero essay.

*

Wednesday rolls by, and work is dull. Harry doesn’t open today, so it was just him and the new girl – Danielle or whatever. She has curly hair, and if Liam liked girls, she would be very fit.

Wednesday brought with it the warm September sun even at 9 in the morning, and Liam has a feeling he’s going to like today as the sun’s rays peer into the open windows of the coffee shop leaving glares on the two coffee tables.

Liam’s not sure if he’s paranoid, but Danielle excessively laughs at everything Liam says, and Liam is pretty sure he isn’t that funny. She also talks really fast and has a tendency to touch Liam’s arm – maybe she’s just trying to be friendly he rationalizes.

Liam is very fidgety because he hasn’t seen Zayn in a whopping of one day, and he knows that this obsession with his professor is unhealthy, but Zayn is Zayn, okay. He’s just about to lose hope and is on his break in the back room when he hears a familiar voice that makes his heart drop to his stomach.

“Is Liam here?”  _Zayn just asked for me, he asked for me specifically._

“Yes, but I can also take your order?” Danielle says, and Liam just figures that she is this flirtatious with everyone because she sounds just like that with Liam.

 “Oh, but Liam knows what I want,” Zayn says matter-of-factly. _I want you, Zayn._

Danielle laughs for no reason, and Liam can’t help but roll his eyes at her as he walks out – trying his best to be as suave as possible (failing miserably).

“Hi,” Liam says meekly, “I’ll take care of him, Danielle.”

Liam looks at Zayn who has a giant grin plastered on his face. He’s wearing his hair combed over to one side today with a black tie and a white dress shirt. Liam is pretty sure Zayn drives everyone around him insane.

“I bet you will,” Danielle rolls her eyes, and Liam lets out a sarcastic smile at her.

“Liam!” Zayn says, “I’ll have the usual, please.”

 _Okay, you can do this, flirt, Liam, flirt, please for once in your life flirt well_ , “I’m not sure if having it once can be called the usual,” Liam says as he scratches the back of his head. _Today is the day I can die happy._

“Well, I guess I got to come back here more often, is that okay?”  Zayn says taking out his money and putting it on the counter. Liam just wants to reach out to touch his eyelashes that seem so unrealistically long. His professor’s eyes lock on his, and Liam is overwhelmed by the different facets of hazel, and it really isn’t fair that one look can ruin him.

“Yes,” Liam breathes, “I work almost every morning.”

“It’s a date then,” _Nope, Zayn is not allowed to say those things ever because that’s just unfair_ , Liam thinks.

“I… I will be right there.” Liam turns around to make Zayn’s coffee and avoids Danielle’s gaze because he just knows that she can probably tell how obviously infatuated he is with Zayn.

“Thanks, Liam,” Zayn says as Liam hands him his cup, and he swears that Zayn brushes his fingers longer than necessary, but that could be his mind playing tricks on him, “I’ll see you in class today, yeah? With your essay, I hope.”

Liam just nods and bites his lower lip not wanting to trip up on his words. Zayn’s out the door before Liam can really register anything. Zayn smiles one last time looking at Liam and takes a sip of his drink.

“So are you guys fucking or what?” Danielle says so loudly that the customers in line look at both of them questionably.

Ever since Zayn has walked into Liam’s life, he’s a walking shade of red and that annoys him, “No, Danielle.”

“Alright, I call dibs then,” Danielle snips, “Because he’s yum.”

Liam scoffs, “He’s a professor. We work at a coffee shop. Get back to work.” _He is yum, and mine_ , Liam thinks.

It is going to be a good day, and he breezes by the next few hours with a good amount of tip as well.

*

Liam is fidgeting in his seat as he is one of the first person in the room. He holds his paper proudly rereading it for the umpteenth time. After deciding to write on Batman, it had taken him several hours to write and rewrite because he wanted it to be perfect.

He was too embarrassed to ask Niall to review it, and even though it was a simple essay, he felt like he was holding onto a delicate secret or a private conversation that only Zayn and him were supposed to share.

Okay, even he had to roll his eyes at himself for that thought. Liam feels a little bit bolder now, so he sits in the middle of the classroom with his coffee on his side and a notebook that has more doodles than notes. Some of those doodles are scratched out because they were a particular professor’s name, and he thought it might’ve been a little excessive if anyone notices.

As the class gets filled up, his heart races when he sees Zayn enter before Perrie this time. Perrie is laughing again and trying her best to keep her eyes on Zayn. He wonders what Zayn would’ve said – he bet it was something funny and witty. Zayn just has a bemused look on his face with eyes half glossed over. He looks at Liam and winks at him. Okay, he’s not sure if he is slightly delusional or if some higher power likes to see Liam blush and squirm.

“Okay, please pass the papers to the right,” Zayn announces to the class, “I’ll read half while Perrie will read the other half, and then we’ll switch off so everyone will have their papers be read by both people.” Liam prays that Zayn will read his, and he gets his wish when Perrie collects the opposite side of the room.

Liam is also thankful that the rest of the class is just Zayn lecturing about logistics and the introduction of his first topic of a ten week quarterly system.

“In comic books – especially superhero comic books, women are often murdered, maimed, and slaughtered all for propelling the man’s story arch forward, does anyone know why this is?” The more Zayn speaks, the more Liam feels completely and utterly inadequate – he uses words like propelling and maimed, and Liam is pretty sure he doesn’t even know how to spell half the words coming out of Zayn’s mouth. Zayn is not only handsome, but he is super intelligent.

All hope has been thrown out the door, he feels ashamed for even being in this class, “This is called a trope. The first trope we will analyze in comic books is the ‘Woman in Refrigerators’.”

The worst part is that Liam is trying really hard to focus, but it is a little bit difficult when your professor looks like a chiseled god, okay? He writes down trope and decides to google it later for further information.

“We will be discussing why this is problematic, and I expect everyone to look up examples to share to the class on Friday. That’s it for today, class.” Zayn smiles as he walks to the front of the class. Liam hadn’t thought that he just got this job on his looks, but now he understands that Zayn actually knows his stuff. Zayn is intelligent, articulate, and sharp and Liam is just Liam – inarticulate, confused, and nervous. He lets out a quiet sigh and decides to just admire Zayn from afar because someone that looks and talks like that doesn’t belong with someone that looks and talks like Liam.

Liam is taking his time putting his stuff back into his bag when he looks up to a smiling Zayn. He lets out a whimper, great a man like him whimpering – good for his image he’s sure, “Did you like the lecture?” Zayn said earnestly  - looking down on Liam through brown eyes and stubble outlining the angle of his face.

“It’s smart,” Liam says, “I mean, the material is smart. I mean, you teach good. Well.” Liam lets out a breath and Zayn is just standing there – face not changing or laughing at him, “What I’m trying to say is that you make me nervous.” _Did I really just say that? Shit._

Zayn frowns at this comment, “Nervous?”

“Oh come on,” Liam is trying his best, but he can feels his palms sweating so he casually puts it underneath the desk so Zayn wouldn’t notice, “You are smart and articulate and your looks can kill.” _Great, one second you’re a stumbling idiot and now you’re a bumbling buffoon._

Zayn looks incredulous and there’s a pause that Liam feels that’s so long that Liam feels awkward just looking at Zayn, “I don't mean to,” Zayn looks guilty now and what the heck does Zayn need to look guilty for, “to make you nervous? I’m sorry.”

“You’re sorry?” Liam feels ridiculous for making his professor feel bad, “No, I mean like you’re smart and I am scared I won’t be able to keep up with the material. And like I don’t even know half the words that are coming out of your mouth,” and that is more than Liam has ever said at once to his professor, and he feels so winded – like he just ran a marathon.

“Well, stop by my office hours sometime, and we can take it slow,” _Is he flirting with me, please be flirting with me._

“I might have to take you up on that offer,” Liam thinks he’s the smoothest operator now, and he’s pretty proud of himself.

“Okay, see you there – I expect coffee,” Zayn winks, walks to the front of the room, and walks out of class leaving behind a very stunned but a very proud Liam that he can even hold a conversation with Zayn for that long.

Liam almost forgets that he has an appointment with his education counselor about financial aid. He groans and walks across campus. It’s not that he doesn’t like his counselor, but he’s just so sassy and quick-witted that Liam can’t keep up.

He enters his counselor’s office – the nametag on the door says Louis Tomlinson, and right before he knocks, he sees a girl coming out of the office crying. He wonders if he should go after her to see if she’s okay, but Louis would kill him if he was late.

He knocks on the door, and Louis turns from his computer – his eyes bloodshot and Liam can see bags underneath his blue eyes. I guess he should give his counselor more credit because he does have to deal with a whole bunch of irresponsible uni students.

“Mr. Payne,” he says with a tired tone, “Come on in,” and he gestures Liam to sit down. Liam notices all the little knickknacks on the table – a half-eaten apple as well. And to the right of his computer, he sees a picture of Louis at the beach, and he keeps looking at it because he’s pretty sure that’s Harry next to him with his curly hair and an arm draped over Louis’ shoulder.

“How do you know Harry?” Liam asks – not sure if it’s rude to ask or not pointing to the picture.

“How do _you_ know Harry?” Louis asks in return, looking back at the picture.

“I work at the coffee shop with him,” Liam says.

“Oh,” Louis looks a little bit more pained, “We’re good friends.”

Liam just shrugs, but he’s pretty sure that picture was not there before summer.

“So Liam,” Louis says apprehensively, “I’ve got bad news.”

Liam bites his lower lip, he’s pretty sure he didn’t get in trouble or he didn’t fail any of his classes or anything, so he’s not sure why he’s here.

“The company who deals with one of your scholarships,” Louis starts, “filed for bankruptcy this summer.”

Liam is still looking at Louis with confusion and Louis looks like someone just shot his puppy, “And you still owe a large amount without the scholarship.”

“What?”

“And if you do not have the money by the tuition deadline on Friday, we have to drop all of your classes until tuition fees are met.”

“What?” Liam is utter disbelief, “How much do I owe the uni?”

Louis looks something up to the computer and points it to Liam. Liam stares at it, and he feels a large lump forming in his throat. He doesn’t even have half that much in his bank account, and he still has to pay for rent, and Liam is pretty sure he has to eat.

“So,” Louis starts because he can see the blank expression on Liam’s face, “I’m really sorry. But if you ask your parents to maybe give you a loan?”

He can’t do that – that’s more than a month’s rent and his mother has his sisters to take care of.

“But worst comes to worst, you can just take these ten weeks and work and then pay for it. I’ll even help you find scholarships, I promise. Think of this as a good ten weeks to earn money,” Liam decides he doesn’t like this Louis – the one with all facts and no sarcasm. The one that has to tell him the bad news about his education, and he knows this should be the least of his problems, but this means he can’t see Zayn anymore.

Liam feels like he’s going to cry, but he’s not the type to cry in front of people, “So, should I return my books?”

“Err,” Louis looks at Liam with hesitation, “I guess so.”

“Okay,” Liam just wants to get out of here, he just wants to crawl into his bed and never wake up because if Zayn’s face is unfair, this situation is ten times the amount of unfair, “Is there anything else then?”

“Liam,” Louis tries to say, but Liam just shakes his head.

“Is that all, Louis?”

“Y-yes,” He knows that Louis probably feels awful, and now he probably knows why the girl came out of Louis’ office crying.

“Thanks,” Liam says mutely as he grabs his bag and leaves. _Thanks for nothing_.

Liam is so thankful that Niall is not home because he is not ready to deal with Niall’s earnest intentions of making him feel better. Liam just sits on his bed with his knees close to his chest, and he allows himself to have his own pity party. He thinks about how unfair this is – that he already works almost full time and struggles twice as hard to just barely keep up with his classmates. It really is unfair and Liam wants to punch a wall because he’s so angry that he’s poor and has no one to turn to.

He only has three quarters left, and he’s out of here, but now he can’t even finish because he can’t afford it. It’s a serious punch in the face for Liam, and he just decides to fall asleep to avoid Niall’s instigation.

*

His body wakes up automatically at six in preparation for his morning run and early shift. He realizes that yesterday was not just a bad dream (a nightmare actually), and sighs. Great, now he is a bum working at a coffee shop with no purpose.

He runs to take his mind off of everything.

There’s a slight overcast today, but the sun will probably appear within the next few hours as Liam gets dressed for work.

He’s thankful to be greeted by Harry and not Danielle this morning because he finds Danielle grating, and he is definitely not up for that today.

Harry is smiling at him and gives him a pat on the back, “Louis told me.”

“How do you two even know each other?” Liam inquires, “And isn’t there like patient confidentiality issues with that?”

Harry just pulls him into a bone breaking hug and whispers, “Do you want to borrow money?”

“No, Harry,” Liam states, “I would feel very awkward. And this is good,” he lies, “I can take a few weeks break off of school. Take up more shifts?”

Harry lets him go and looks at him through his curly haired and his childlike face, “Are you sure I can’t do anything to help?”

Harry is childish at times and silly at others, but sometimes Liam can forget that he surrounds himself by good people (read: Niall, Harry, and he thought it would be Zayn), so this caring Harry makes Liam both feel warm and awkward.

“Yes, I’m fine.”

Harry wraps his arms around Liam another time before starting off his daily routine of preparation.

“So how do you guys know each other?”

And Liam can see Harry blush a little before he gives Liam an award winning smile, “We’re dating.”

“You’ve got to be shitting me,” Liam looks at Harry, “You’re dating my educating counselor?”

“We have lots of tantric sex too,” Harry offers.

“Okay, I don’t even know what that is, but it sounds gross, and I definitely do not want to know that about my counselor.” Liam shrugs the idea of Harry and Louis together out of his head.

“I bet the professor you make heart eyes with likes it rough too,” Harry winks and nudges Liam hard at his side – achieving what Harry probably set out to achieve as Liam turns a bright red.

“I, I don’t have a crush on my professor,” Liam says unconvincingly.

“Are you kidding me? I’m with Louis and everything but you’d have to be blind, deaf, and a tree to not want a piece of that pie,” Harry cackles even more when the shade of red does not leave Liam’s face.

“Harry, please, let’s just get to work.”

“Is he coming today? Why don’t you offer him his drink and a side of bending him over and fucking him.”

“Harry! Please!” Liam almost drops the stack of cups in his hands, and Harry runs to the backdoor cackling like a maniac.

If Zayn is coming today, how is Liam going to tell him that he’s not going to be in his class anymore? How is he going to face his professor who seems excited for Liam to be in his class? Or maybe that was wishful thinking, but he can probably still see Zayn again for coffee every day.

It’s near the end of his shift when Zayn comes in with Louis next to him. If Liam didn’t know any better that Louis is dating Harry, he would’ve thought that Zayn and Louis were together since they were both looking at each other and laughing. It was more of Zayn just laughing – he’s clean shaven today with a red cardigan and a black dress shirt underneath and brown slacks. Liam wonders why Zayn isn’t wearing a tie today, but he shouldn’t be thinking about those things at all – not what he’s wearing and definitely not what he’s wearing underneath.

Before Liam can make a bee line to the backdoor to avoid a conversation with Zayn, Zayn has already spotted him and gives him a smile that makes his heart jump a few times.

“Mr. Liam,” and has Liam mentioned how much he loves the way Zayn says his name, “I’ll have the usual, and have you met my good friend, Louis?” Liam nods and tries to avoid eye contact with the both of them, but it’s a little bit difficult because he can feel Louis’ look of sympathy and Zayn’s hazel eyes trying to connect with his.

“Yes,” Liam simply says.

“I was going on and on about this coffee shop, and I just had to come by,” If Zayn has felt the tension in the air, he doesn’t let it show through his conversation.

Harry peers out the back, and stands next to Liam with a childish grin plastered on his face. Liam notices that he’s not smiling at Zayn, but is looking at Louis while Louis is visibly blushing and looking at his toes.

“You too know each other?” Zayn says – not missing a beat and raising an eyebrow towards Louis and Harry.

“That’s Harry,” Louis whispers to Zayn, and Zayn’s eyes widen in surprise and a look of amusement.

“Oh, I’ve heard good things about you, Harry, _big_ things,” Zayn teases. Liam can’t help but let out a blush and a laugh at the same time.

“I am going to kill you in your sleep, Malik,” Louis says through gritted teeth.

“I know what you like, Louis, I’ll make it for you,” Harry says – taking the conversation in strides.

“Oh, I bet you do,” And Liam decides that he likes this side of Zayn, the side where he is teasing and relaxed, and doesn’t scare the shit out of him or make him nervous.

“I know what you want,” Liam says meekly – trying to keep up with the conversation, but failing because Liam knows how to work hard, but he obviously lacks wit. Louis lets out a stifled cackle and Zayn hisses at him, but looks back at Liam warmly, “I’ll… just get your drink ready.”

Zayn thanks Liam for the drink and adds, “I’ll see you in class on Friday?” And Louis effectively elbows Zayn in the stomach as Liam’s face drops.

“I dropped it,” Liam simply says staring at the place where Zayn’s neck meets his dress shirt because he doesn’t want to see the look on Zayn’s face.

“What?”

“Something came up, and I can’t take it,” Liam lies because Zayn is way out of Liam’s league from being smart, handsome, intelligent, and witty, and he is pretty sure that Zayn’s job pays well too, and here is Liam who can’t even afford to pay his tuition. So it makes him feel completely beneath Zayn, and he doesn’t want Zayn to think that all.

“Oh,” Zayn says – downtrodden. And Louis just thanks both Harry and Liam for the drinks and drag Zayn out the door. He can’t help but think that Zayn looks a little bit shocked and sad at this news, and he feels bad that he is letting Zayn think that maybe his class was awful and not for Liam at all, but it was. It is hard, but it was interesting because the class was Zayn and comic books and superheros.

Harry wraps his arms around Liam’s waist, and Liam sighs a little, “You sure you don’t want to borrow money from me?”

“I’m sure,” Liam says as he gets ready for his next customers.

*

By Friday, Liam calls in sick when he’s not really and mopes around in his bed. Niall doesn’t say anything, and that makes Liam really grateful. Harry understands that he should have a day for himself, but reminds Liam that he should be working for his tuition.

It’s noon, and Liam is feeling extremely moody because right now he could be sitting in Zayn’s classroom and admire Zayn’s tattoos, his articulation, the way his neck veins pulse whenever he speaks passionately about something, but nope, he is here – curled up in his blankets and ready to never face anything ever again.

So yes, he throws himself a pity party, and the only reason why he even gets up is because he gets a direct call from an unknown number. He is completely startled because Niall and Harry are the only ones that call him, and his mother calls him every once a month at the end of the month, so he wonders who it is.

“Hello,” Liam says into his phone, “I think you got the wrong number.”

“You don’t even know who this is,” and he knows this voice, and he knows it belongs to Louis.

“Louis, why are you calling? How did you even get my number?” Louis is probably the last person he wants to talk to, and he knows it’s not Louis’ fault, but still, he was the one that told Liam that he couldn’t go to uni anymore.

“Good news, please come in as soon as possible,” Louis is a little bit too chipper for even Liam’s taste right now.

“Can’t you just tell me on the phone?” Liam is impatient, but Louis is seriously cutting into his self-pity time, and he’s having none of that today.

“Get your butt in here or I will make Zayn come get you yourself.”

“What?” What kind of threat is that? Why would Louis even say that? Was he that obvious?

“Never mind, just get in here, please?”

“Okay.” The quicker he gets this over with, the quicker he can get into bed and wallow some more, and he knows he must be the most annoying person in the world right now, but he doesn’t care.

*

“Liam!” Liam plops down at the seat facing Louis’ desk. Louis seems really happy, and he cannot stand to be that positive right now, “I’m so glad you’re here. How’s Harry?”

“Really? I thought this conversation was about me?” Liam snaps at Louis, he feels a little bit bad afterwards, but really, why did Louis even drag him here if it is just to talk about his budding love for Harry, “He’s good, by the way. Do I have to go through that best friend stuff about how I’ll break you in pieces if you hurt him?”

“Has anyone ever told you that you do not look at all frightening in any sense of the word?” Liam likes that Louis looks his age, and he’s been wondering how people his age have always been more successful than he is. Zayn couldn’t be more than two or three years older, and Louis didn’t look that much older either, and here Liam is all awkward and nervous around professors, “Like a puppy with furrowed eyebrows.”

Liam notices that he’s furrowing his eyebrows and immediately stops, “You’re supposed to be counselor, so counsel me already.”

“Oh yes, that is right. We’ll get back to the topic of Harry later,” Louis says wheeling back to his computer as Liam effectively rolls his eyes, “It appears to me that I made a mistake, and I usually do not make mistakes. But there is a scholarship that is dedicated to you.”

“What?” Liam is trying his best to contain his excitement because he’s not sure if he’s connecting the dots properly.

“I can’t say anymore, but you can be re-enrolled in your classes – effectively immediately. You’ll only have missed one day of school,” Louis looks at Liam with a sort of lopsided grin, and Liam cannot believe what he is saying.

“Who?” is all that Liam manages to choke out.

“I cannot say, let’s just say you’ve got a secret handler,” Louis says winking.

“I’m not following you here,” Liam shrugs.

“A superhero in your midst that wants to remain hidden,” Louis winks again for added effect.

“I don’t get it.”

“Holy shit, how daft are you, kid? Get out of here. And tell Harry I said hi!” And before he knows it, Louis is kicking him out of his office – re-enrolled in class. He doesn’t want to jump any kind of conclusion, but Liam’s not that daft (at least, he would like to think he wasn’t), and he is pretty sure that it was Zayn who gave him the scholarship money.

Liam is shaking from excitement when he realizes what this means – he gets to graduate on time; he gets to go to classes and apply to firemen training on time; he gets to see Zayn again. That last bit of information should not even be in his mind processes, but it is.

He had put two and two together when he remembered how Zayn was shocked when he found out Liam was not enrolled in his class anymore. Superhero and a secret handler – come on, it had to be Zayn. But why would Zayn be invested in Liam in the first place? It just seemed too good to be true.

It’s a Friday night and the sun is almost setting, so it’s no surprise that when Liam gets back to his apartment, he doesn’t find Niall there. There are two things that Niall loves in this world and it is drinking and eating, and he’s probably out doing both.

He looks at his phone and his conclusion is right when he sees Niall’s text: _At the bars, you know which one, if you want to join :DDD?_

Liam just says he has a lot of work to catch up on, which is true, but he decides to go for a run first to clear off all this nervous energy from the excitement of today.

As he steps out of his apartment and starts his jog to campus, he realizes that he should run in the afternoon more often because there’s a slight Autumn breeze, and the leaves seem brighter in hues of orange as the sun is setting.

Much like other things in his life, he likes running because it’s simple. He likes to put on a good playlist and barely notices anything around him – just the sound of his breath and the way he passes by people he’ll never really know. It definitely keeps his mind off of things – things like Zayn and how perfect he is and –

“You should really watch where you’re going,” the next thing he knows he hears a girl scream and there is an impact and he is on the floor with papers everywhere. He feels a little bit woozy, and just realizes that he was hit by a girl on a bike, and those were her papers on the ground.

“I’m sorry,” Liam says earnestly although he’s pretty sure that she ran into him. He realizes that he recognizes the shockingly purple hair and the piercing blue eyes, “Oh, hi, Perrie.”

“Do I know you?” She doesn’t seem hurt, but she does seem really impatient, but who could blame her when her papers are all scattered on the floor. She grumbles under her breath, something about reckless undergraduates, and Liam decides to help her pick up the papers.

“You’re the T.A. in that comics class, right? I’m in that class.”

She looks up at him, “There’s a bunch of people in that class.”

“I’m Liam, the ‘I am Batman’ guy,” Liam smiles at her the best he can even though his head is throbbing from the collision.

“You’re Liam? Zayn’s Liam?” Since when was he Zayn’s Liam? But he likes the sound of that even though Perrie’s face is unreadable.

“I’m what?”

“The Liam with the brown eyes and the white chocolate mocha,” she scoffs. And apparently, Liam is smiling because Zayn talks about him as much as Liam thinks about Zayn, and that’s a little bit neat in Liam’s mind.

“Sure?” Liam says, not wanting to sound obvious that his heart is literally skipping so many beats that it’s becoming unhealthy.

“You know he could lose his job,” she says looking at him with concern.

“What are you talking about?” And Liam knows it’s only the first week of school, but he feels like everyone’s in on something that he isn’t in on, and that’s irritating him a lot. Everyone seems to know something that he doesn’t.

As he hands her the last of her papers and props her bike up checking to see if it still works, “Never mind, forget I said anything. Just show up to class on Monday, okay? Don’t miss his classes – it’s impossible to keep up afterwards,” She smiles at him and waves.

God, people are weird, and ominous, and is this what all English majors do? They speak in tongues and riddles that leave normal people like Liam confused.

*

 Liam wakes up to an e-mail notification on his phone early Saturday morning. He almost falls out of his bed when he sees who he it's from. He’s so nervous that he decides to pace back and forth first – does his morning routine of brushing his teeth and scratching his head with barely there hair a few times before he gets on his computer and reads it.

_Mr. Liam Payne,_

_I’ve noticed that you are re-enrolled in my class. I expect you to have kept up with the reading, and I have attached the lecture we went over on Friday considering that you missed class. In order for you to keep up with your assignments, I hope that you come to either mine or Perrie’s office hours (preferably mine with coffee and I’ll trade you some cookies) on Monday after class._

_Also, I have managed to look over your essay. In your sentence, “Batman has no time for manors,” I am pretty sure you meant manners because Batman lives in a giant mansion, I’m sure of this. ;)_

_Let me know if you have any further questions or concerns. You can reach me at this e-mail. Otherwise, I look forward to seeing you in class and in office hours._

_Comically yours,_

_Z._

Holy shit, was all Liam could think because A. He had managed to embarrass himself in front of the professor he had the hots for with a spelling mistake, and B. A wink is definitely a sign of flirtation right.

“Niall, Nialllllll,” he shakes his roommate.

“Liam, if you aren’t dying, I swear you will be for waking me up at abnormal people hours,” Niall says groggily.

“Niall, please, read this and tell me I’m not delusional, winky faces are flirt faces, right? Like, when you add a wink to something, it automatically becomes flirtation, right?”

“What the hell are you babbling on about, mate?” Niall says, his dirty blonde hair a mess as he wraps himself up in his blanket and getting up. Liam is looking at him with puppy dog eyes and fervently pointing at the e-mail from Zayn.

“Seriously, dude?” Niall says through blood shot eyes, “You woke me up to analyze your hot professor’s e-mail about assignments?”

“Niall, look, he winked and invited me to his office hours, who does that?” Liam says honestly – not caring if it’s six in the morning before his work.

“Liam, professors invite students to their office hours. This does not mean they want to have hot teacher student sex with you, now can I please go back to bed?” And it wasn’t even a question because before he knows it, Niall’s face is against the wall and he’s back to sleeping.

Liam especially likes working on Saturday mornings because hardly anyone comes in before 10 A.M. and he just talks to Harry in that time.

“Congratulations on going back to uni, mate,” Harry says. Today, he has his curly haired pulled back from a bandana with the American flag logo on it. He’s not sure about dress policy, but Harry has worked here for longer than he has, so he doesn’t question Harry’s choices in outfit or in men for that matter.

“Seriously, does Louis not understand the confidentiality agreement or something? Or does he just have a big mouth?” Liam quips – in a good mood today.

“Oh, he does have a good mouth,” Harry teases as Liam’s ears turn a little red.

“That’s not what I said,” Liam glares.

“Oh look, looks like I’m off the hook because your lover boy is here.”

Liam turns to look out the window and he sees Zayn, but this isn’t the Zayn that he knows. This Zayn has his hair down, and he’s wearing a grey sweatshirt with his uni logo on it and baggy grey sweatpants. Liam swears that the man can wear a garbage bag and still be the finest piece of English literature Liam has ever come across. He even giggles at himself for even coming up with that comparison.

“Hi Liam,” Zayn says, _say my name again, Zayn, say it_ , “Did you get my e-mail?”

“You e-mailed me?” Liam lies, “I’ll check it later.” Liam doesn’t even understand why he’s playing it cool, but he does anyway because he’s Liam and Liam doesn’t know how to flirt well.

“Okay,” Zayn smiles, there’s a pause that’s too long because Liam was too busy counting Zayn’s eyelashes because he doesn’t believe they are real.

“What are you doing up so early?”

“I go for a run in the morning,” _He is smart; he reads; he goes for run; just marry me already_.

“I run, too!” Liam says – looking like an excited puppy that was just tossed a bone, “We should run together,” and before he knows it, he’s blabbering things like that now, “I mean, wait, that’s not appropriate, you’re my professor, never mind, can I just like take your order now?”

Liam just smiles, and it is really unfair to even look good in sweats because who is this person? “No problem. I’ll have the usual.”

Liam turns to make his drink wanting to sink into a hole of regret. He finishes Zayn’s drink, but sees that Zayn is gone.

Zayn comes back a few minutes later with a stack of papers in his hand and his messenger bag, “You don’t mind if I finish grading here, right?” He says as he grabs the mocha out of Liam’s hand.

“Be my guest.” Liam says.

Zayn situates himself to the corner table, and for the rest of Liam’s shift, they don’t say anything, but steal a couple of glances at each other when the other was not looking.

*

By the time Monday rolls around, Liam has probably read over Zayn’s lecture slides a dozen times – memorizing to his best intent all the information in an attempt to regurgitate it if Zayn were to call on him in class.  He does this for two reasons: 1. Because the material was actually quite interesting and 2. Because he really wants to impress Zayn (he reads it more for reason 2 than 1 to be honest). He sits there in a black t-shirt and torn up blue jeans looking over his lecture notes at a final time while his leg shakes nervously. He’s excited to be here.

Zayn enters with Perrie, and gives Liam a slight nod. The first slide says, “Review” and Zayn sits there in black jeans and a grey dress shirt with a solid black tie.

“Okay,” Zayn says – clasping his hands together while facing the class. Liam always notices by the time second week of class rolls around, the number of students in the lecture hall whittles down – not by much because Zayn is still a popular professor, but there are significantly less people, “Who can tell me what we learned on Friday?”

Looks like Liam is not the only one trying to impress Zayn because there are a whole bunch of hands raising up eagerly (mostly girls, Liam thinks), Zayn nods and points to a girl with dark black hair at the front of the class, “Yes, my dear.”

She blushes a little, “Women in Refrigerators as a trope.”

“Great, and can you tell me what that is?” Zayn says – eyes completely focused on her.

“Well, it’s uhh, when women are found in refrigerators in comic books,” she says hesitantly – now regretting her decision to raise her hand.

“That’s good,” Zayn says supportively, “But is it only limited to refrigerators? Anyone else?”

The number of hands in the air has decreased, Liam knows the answer, but he’s still too hesitant to raise his hand.

Zayn calls to a guy in the back with a green plaid shirt, “No, I don’t think so. It’s just in anyway women are depicted as graphically murdered or killed.”

“That’s awesome,” Zayn smiles with enthusiasm, “Now who can tell why this is problematic?”

Liam knows this too because he’s read it so many times, and if it is important to Zayn, then it’s definitely important to him. There are no hands up now as Liam looks around the class. _Now’s your chance, Liam, do it, impress him._

Liam raises his hand before his mind can tell him not to, and Zayn immediately looks at him with an encouraging nod, “It’s problematic because when men get hurt or die in comic books, they can just come back. Like when Bane breaks Batman’s back, he just comes back as Batman. This is not the same for women in comic books most of the time,” And he can hear whispers and a slight ‘he’s good’ from someone behind him. Zayn looks positively beaming, and Liam takes a mental picture of what Zayn looks like with his face lit up with a genuine smile that creases the corner of his hazel eyes.

“This is coming from a guy who wasn’t even here on Friday,” Zayn announces, “everyone should be taking notes.”

He can hear the whole class scoff, but he doesn’t care, he’s managed to impress Zayn and that’s all that matters.

The rest of the class goes by pretty quickly with Zayn switching off from lecturing and asking the opinions of Liam’s fellow classmates – occasionally looking at Liam. Liam doesn’t raise his hand again because he’s still reeling from the fact that he managed to publically speak for that long without projectile vomiting on everyone in front of him.

*

At the end of the day, Liam is tired because his classes are sprawled all over campus, and although he enjoys his uni for the abundance of evergreen trees that shade him from the autumn setting sun, he’s getting a little bit antsy as he has to trek from one side of campus to the English department building on the other side to meet up with Zayn.

He might also be antsy because he’s seeing Zayn – alone, in an office, and his imagination is jumping ahead of him because he imagines Zayn pushing him against his desk and kissing him gently. The imaginary stubble on Zayn’s face sends him shivers, and he can feel his jeans tighten, and that’s awkward when you’re walking.

As he walks up the fifth floor of the English Department – a building that makes up for the narrowness in hallways by the sheer height, Liam is thinking of all the things he could say to Zayn. The building is one of the older ones on campus, and the walls are filled with posters about Shakespeare and upcoming shows and plays by the local theatre department, and it just seems so different than the school buildings Liam is used to.

He traces the black letters in front of Zayn’s office, and he peers in to see Zayn working diligently at his desk with his hair styled in jutted spikes. He has headphones on, and his head is bobbing to music. Liam knocks, but Zayn is so into his grading and his music that he doesn’t hear it. Liam smiles and plops down on the couch near the door.

He takes in Zayn’s office – it seems oddly like a bedroom minus the bed because the walls are decorated with comic and movie posters. He sees The Dark Knight Rises, Watchmen, and The Walking Dead all plastered on the walls, and in between Watchmen and The Walking Dead, there is a superhero that he does not recognize.

The one thing that sticks out the most is at the bottom of the wallpapers, he sees a giant graffiti poster with the words ZAP! In yellow with black outlines. He wonders what that is about, but as he looks closer to the edge, he can see what seems to be Zayn’s signature which makes him whistle impressively.

Zayn still hasn’t looked up yet, and Liam bursts into laughter when Zayn sings a verse of a Taylor Swift song. Zayn is so startled that he finally looks up – surprised written all over his face.

“Liam! How long have you been there?” Zayn stands up and smooths his shirt out.

“Long enough to know that you know Taylor Swift’s Red,” Liam chuckles – still eyeing the graffiti on the wall.

“But that means you know it too,” Zayn banters.

Liam turns to him and smile, and points to the superhero in the middle, “Which one is that?” Liam is really interested in the way it’s drawn – a style that he hasn’t seen so far – full of different shades of red, and he wonders why he’s never heard about it.

Zayn steps to the front of his desk and looks up at the poster, “You don’t know him?”

“Nope,” Liam says honestly.

“He’s really popular in the comic book world,” Zayn adds, “I created him.” Zayn looks at Liam as his eyes widen.

“You write comics?”

“What, you think I just teach comics for fun? I have to have some credibility to teach, you know?” Zayn says as he closes the door to his office.

Now Liam’s heart is going on overtime as he is in Zayn’s office – alone. Alone.

Zayn grabs a chair and swings it around and sits on it with the back of the chair facing Liam. It really is unfair how long Zayn’s eyelashes are, and he never thought to even notice a person’s eyelashes, but Zayn is the exception to the rule, obviously. “Now, I initially called you in here because I thought you would be behind in your coursework. What about you, Liam? I like comics, what do you like?”

 _I like you._ “Uhm, well, I’m in school to be a firefighter.”

Zayn has a tendency to give someone one hundred percent of his attention, and Liam just finds this trait fascinating because Liam is always avoiding gazes and looking at different directions. But Zayn’s eyes are on Liam, and Liam can’t help but to look earnestly at Zayn as well.

“Oh, so you want to be a real live superhero then,” Zayn teases and gives Liam a smile – thinning his lips and Liam’s heart is doing weird palpitations.

Liam really wants to ask if Zayn was the one who paid off his tuition, but what if Zayn didn’t? What if Liam just had this delusional idea in his head that Zayn would give a second thought about him. Liam bites his lower lip because he doesn’t want to say anything he’ll regret – like how he just wants to lean in to kiss Zayn or how he thinks Zayn is perfection and unreal.

“Do you have any questions for me?” Zayn asks – eyes still fixated on Liam.

Liam leans forward a little and says, “So, I think I might be crazy, but on the off-chance that I am not crazy, and that I am not just making this up in my head, but did you, by any chance, pay for my tuition?”

Zayn looks at him with wide eyes and looks at his converses, “That Louis always had a big mouth.”

So maybe Liam isn’t crazy, and maybe Liam isn’t making grand delusions in his head, and maybe Zayn just likes him too? But the point is why? Why would Zayn like someone like Liam?

“So, why did you do it? I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful that you did, and I’ll pay you back and everything once I have the money, but why?” Liam knows he’s coming off a little paranoid, but Zayn doesn’t look to be much older than he is, where did he even get the money? Oh right, Zayn writes comic books and is a professor, and Liam works at a coffee shop trying to make ends meet. This is part of the reason why Liam is so baffled that Zayn is expressing a minute interest in him.

“First off, I don’t expect you to pay me back any time soon,” Zayn says, “I actually don’t expect anything from you – except maybe always making my coffee because you’re good at it. Not that you aren’t good at other things, but now I’m rambling and everyone needs help sometimes, you know?”

And Liam does know because Liam never asks for help, but he really wants people to help sometimes. He really wants people to ask even though he knows he’ll refuse it anyway.

“Also, in case you haven’t noticed already, Liam, I might like you a little,” And before Liam could tell, his face was on fire – his ears were so red that he had to cover it up because it really was embarrassing. “Don’t,” Zayn says reaching out to put Liam’s hands down from his ears, “I like it when you blush.” Zayn shouldn’t say things because when Zayn says things like that, how is Liam suppose to react?

There’s a long pause because Liam is left to deal with the inside of his head jumping to different conclusions and how all he wants to do is for Zayn to keep touching his arms like he just did. “Oh god, you’re not saying anything. I’m a professor, and I just confessed my feelings to a student, and oh god, I’m going to get fired. Please don’t tell anyone, I just sexually harassed you. I’m going to lose my job –“

And Liam leans in because Liam might be nervous all the time, but now Liam is sure that Zayn wants this too, so Liam leans in so close that Zayn just stops speaking. Before his mind can tell him to stop, can tell him that he doesn’t know how to kiss, and Zayn has probably kissed hundreds of people, he asks Zayn, “Can I, can I kiss you?”

Zayn just nods quietly and Liam places his lips on his. It’s gentle, but he can feel how soft Zayn’s lips are, and they’re not as rough as Liam imagines.

But just like that, he pulls away and blushes again, “I just kissed a professor.” As if that’s all that his mind can think of right now.

Zayn steps closer to Liam, and the next thing Liam knows Zayn gets on top of him, his legs trapping Liam’s legs – straddling him. Zayn’s hands move to touch Liam’s face, and asks, “Is this okay?” And Liam’s voice fails him, so he just nods.

It’s more than okay because Zayn’s smell envelopes Liam – a hint of cologne, aftershave, and deodorant that sends Liam’s mind in overdrive.

“I… I don’t know what to do with my hands,” Liam says awkwardly – praying that he didn’t ruin the moment.

Before Liam could say anything, Zayn’s lips are touching his again – at first delicately and Liam thinks that Zayn tastes like cherries. Zayn’s teeth start to nibble at Liam’s bottom lip, and Liam lets out an embarrassing moan that only encourages Zayn to press down on Liam’s lap grinding against him. His jeans are uncomfortably tight by now, but he doesn’t say anything. He just pushes upwards against Zayn.

Liam hesitantly puts his hands on Zayn’s back and is rewarded with a flick of Zayn’s tongue tracing the outlines of Liam’s lips, “Zayn,” Liam breathes out.

Liam can feel Zayn’s lips curl into a smile, and Liam finds Zayn’s hands moving down and curling his shirt.

“I’ve always wanted to do this,” Zayn says as Liam feels a sharp pain on his neck that is quickly taking over by a sense of dull pleasure as Zayn is licking and kissing Liam’s neck. Liam’s vision is blurred and looks at Zayn through heavy-lidded eyes. Liam does all that he can to control himself, but he finds his nails digging into Zayn’s back and pulling him closer – thrusting upwards, and he knows that he’s embarrassingly close without even any close contact.

Zayn pulls away for a second and looks at Liam both deviously and eagerly. Zayn’s tongue slips into Liam’s mouth cautiously as if asking for permission and Liam lets out another moan that only has Zayn’s tongue feverishly searching for Liam’s. He’s never experienced this before, but he’s glad he’s experiencing it with Zayn. Even though he’d imagine Zayn to be delicate, he’s rough and takes control, and Liam likes that because it blacks out all of his thoughts. Liam just breathes Zayn in – neither of them breaking apart for air. Zayn’s tongue is warm against his. Zayn is good and rough while Liam is sloppy and wet.

Zayn pulls away to look at Liam and both their lips are swollen from kissing too long, Zayn’s eyes have a gloss over them, and Zayn’s moves his fingers to the part of Liam’s neck where he just kissed, “Oops,” he says, and Liam knows without even looking that Zayn left a mark on his neck.

Liam is moving his hands up and down Zayn’s back when Zayn jolts up to a knock on the door, “Zayn,” a familiar voice calls from the other side.

Zayn walks clumsily to the door, and Zayn looks at Liam with a timid smile and points to Liam’s crotch. Liam is confused for a second and his eyes widen to see that he’s sporting a huge tent in his pants. He does his best to move his backpack on top of him – wipes the sweat from his brow, and looks as casual as possible.

“Perrie,” Zayn says as he opens the door.

“Zayn, why was your door closed?” Perrie asks, stepping in without permission to notice Liam on the couch. Liam is trying his best to put on a straight face, but he knows his breathing is still labored, “Oh,” is all that comes out of her mouth.

“What’d you need, Perrie?” Zayn says as Perrie’s eyes are still narrowed on Liam as a parent would look at a child as if their hand were caught in the cookie jar. And that’s just the thing; Liam’s hands were all over Zayn’s cookie jar. Liam almost snorts at that bad analogy, but he decides not to.

“I just came to talk about Wednesday’s lecture,” Perrie finally turns to look at Zayn, “But I can come back?”

“Give me five minutes, yeah?” Zayn says nodding at her.

She walks out still giving an unreadable expression to Zayn – glancing at Liam one last time.

Zayn closes the door behind him and whispers, “Shit.”

“I know,” Liam says, “Hopefully the good kind of shit.” He immediately regrets saying that because that didn’t even make sense.

Zayn chuckles, “So,” Zayn starts while scratching the back of his hand, “I’m your professor. I am not supposed to be doing these things, I’ve never done this before.” Liam lets out a relieved sigh because at least now he knows that Liam is not just another student in a long line of weird professor/student kink that Zayn has, “I could get fired. Shit, what am I thinking? It’s just have you seen you with your arms and your broad shoulders and the way you’re so earnest and the way you look in t-shirts, I mean it’s unfair to look like that,” Liam looks at Zayn incredulously. Zayn thinks that it’s unfair for Liam to look like this when Zayn walks around looking and acting the way he does.

“You think it’s unfair? I mean, have you seen you? You’re a professor and you dress like that all the time,” Liam says gesturing to Zayn’s clothes, “And aren’t you a little young to be a professor anyway?”

“I’m only three years older than you; they just hired me because I’m good at talking and my parents donate a lot of money to this school,” Zayn blurts out.

“Also, you’re a genius,” Liam says standing up.

“Liam,” Zayn looks at him through hazel eyes and Liam just wants to hold Zayn close all the time and tell him he’s intelligent and handsome and how unfair it is, “I could get fired for this, but I want this. I want to see where this goes, but if we were to do this, it has to be a secret. And I’ll understand if you don’t want this, because it’s a lot to ask – to keep this a secret.”

Liam just embraces Zayn and Liam likes the way Zayn smells. Liam also likes the way Zayn breathes into him as he strokes the hair on the back of Liam’s neck.

“If I get to kiss you all the time in private,” Liam says, “I’ll keep it a secret.”  Zayn kisses him tenderly this time.

“That’s a deal,” Zayn says winking at Liam, “Same time next week?”

*

It becomes a sort of routine for them: Zayn buys coffee every morning – only having casual conversations and only talks about class and comics when other people around. Harry has noticed that Liam is less tense around Zayn and eyes him suspiciously, but Liam is grateful that Harry doesn’t say anything.

On Saturdays, Zayn comes in from his morning runs to grade papers and steal glances at Liam every now and then. Liam is happy and Zayn still makes his palms sweat from time to time whenever Zayn looks at him a certain way or says his name, but he finds that holding Zayn’s hand make him feel a little bit better. Or whenever Zayn steals a kiss when no one is looking, and it makes it all worthwhile.

On Mondays, Liam goes to office hours, sometimes there are people there who ask Zayn lots of questions and Liam pretends to ask questions, too, because he doesn’t want to make it obvious that he’s not there for questions when he’s actually there for Zayn.

There are times when all they do is talk, and Liam finds out that Zayn is actually quite a nerd underneath his stylish demeanor.

Liam tells Zayn about how his single mother supports him and his sisters without anyone’s help – letting Zayn into the parts of his life that he hasn’t even let Niall or Harry know yet.

Zayn shares with Liam about his father’s impossible expectations and how his mother is supportive about how he dedicated his life in comics.

Don’t get Liam wrong, he loves the time he spends with Zayn. He loves the way Zayn makes him laugh because he says something funny, or how Zayn gets really passionate and talks really fast about his new comic or something in lecture, but September quickly turns into November, and he still hasn’t found out where Zayn lives. He also wants to ask Zayn out to dinner, and wants to treat Zayn out to something special and nice – do something for Zayn, but every time Liam talks about going out in public, Zayn immediately changes the topic.

Liam decides that he wants to have all of Zayn, and that it is quite unfair that he can’t show Zayn off his mother, or Niall, or Harry, or rub it in Perrie’s face that Zayn is his.

It’s a Monday in Zayn’s office hours. The weather has gotten significantly cooler as the warmth of autumn slowly creeps away from the upcoming winter. Zayn is sitting at his desk explaining to a boy who seems completely lost as to why he got a bad grade on one of his papers.

Zayn tries his best to divulge to the boy that he completely misunderstood what Zayn was saying. His hair falls near his eyes now, and Zayn is wearing thick rimmed glasses that make him look so much younger that he could pass for a student.

The boy finally leaves with his head down, and Zayn looks up from his textbook and says, “We should go out. Like on a date.”

Zayn looks at Liam and gestures to close the door, “Babe, you know why we can’t.”

“Yeah, I know, privacy,” Liam rebuttles, “But what if we go far away from the uni.”

“Liam,” Zayn says – his eyes are tired from grading papers, but Liam thinks it’s also because he doesn’t want to have this conversation with Liam anymore, “I’m sorry.”

Zayn walks over to Liam on the couch and kisses Liam’s cheek. His hand finding Liam’s and holding it tight, “Liam, you know that I love my job.”

“Yeah, I’m getting that,” Liam knows he’s whining, but he just wants to see Zayn outside of the coffee shop and outside of this room.

“You know I care about you, right?” Zayn says as he rests his head on Liam’s shoulder with his fingers circle around Liam’s hands.

“Yeah, I guess.”

“Babe, don’t be like that,” Zayn says, and it really is impossible for Liam to be mad at Zayn and he is even annoyed at that fact.

“Whatever, just forget I mentioned it,” Liam says – still not looking down at where Zayn is leaning on his shoulder.

There’s a pause that makes Liam thinks Zayn has fallen asleep, “What if we have dinner at my place on Friday?” He suggests.

Liam beams, “Really?”

“Yeah,” Zayn smiles, “I mean, I know it’s not going out, but you know, we could do things that we can’t do in public.” Zayn has a mischievous grin on his face now.

“Oh really, like what, Professor Zayn?” Liam teases.

Zayn pushes him, “I told you not to call me that!” And Zayn tackles him on the couch and nuzzles his neck.

“Zayn, I was just checking to see – “ Zayn panics and looks up as Perrie stands in the doorway wide-eyed, “Oh, uhh, I’ll come back.” Perrie closes the door behind her, and Zayn starts pacing back and forth.

“Shit, shit, shit.”

“Babe,” Liam stands up and strokes Zayn’s back, “It’s okay.”

“Liam, it’s not okay, I can get fired. All that I worked for gets thrown down the drain. You don’t understand.”

Liam is worried, but he’s gotten used to how Zayn panics. He knows that if he starts panicking too, Zayn would freak out even more. Zayn looks at Liam – eyes glistening as if he is about to cry. Liam’s first thought was that Zayn even looks pretty when he cries and he automatically thinks he’s going to hell.

“Babe, I’m sure she won’t tell,” Liam reassures him, “You guys are close, right? Just tell her that this not a one-time thing. That we do actually care for each other.”

Zayn nods, “Yeah, you’re right. Perrie’s not irrational. I have to go talk to her.”

Liam kisses Zayn once on the lips, picks up his stuff ,and leaves, “Text me, yeah?” When he leaves, he sees Perrie leaning against the door. He wants to say something to Perrie, but he’s not sure if it’ll make the situation worst. He just smiles meekly at her, and her face is unreadable. So he just walks pass her – eyebrows furrowing in worry.

He’s waiting by the phone for a while, and it’s getting late. He doesn’t get a text from Zayn, and he’s starting to get worried. By 11 P.M. at night, he sends a text to Zayn: _Everything ok??? :((_

The text he gets from Zayn comes a few seconds later: _Yes, I will see you on Wednesday. x_

Relieved, Liam finally goes to bed.

*

Liam realizes that it’s getting too cold for just t-shirts, so on Wednesday, he wears a dark green jacket to work. He is excited because he gets to see Zayn at his morning shift. They don’t text that often because Liam studies a lot, and Zayn is no doubt constantly swamped with grading and work.

There is a constant wind in the air, and the weather is a little bit gloomy for Liam’s liking. Harry is as chipper as ever, and Liam chalks it up to Harry spending a lot more time with Louis.

That’s all that Harry talks about nowadays – Louis this, Louis that and how Louis is so funny all the time.

As Liam is taking an order from a customer, Harry perches his head on Liam’s shoulder from behind and whispers, “Where’s Zayn?”

Liam shrugs, and Harry is right because it is past the time that Zayn usually arrives – and Zayn is very punctual for everything, “Maybe he’s busy.”

Harry frowns, “Did you two get in a fight?”

“I don’t think so,” Liam says earnestly – furrowing his eyebrows. Maybe he was being too pushy about that date thing, and maybe Zayn didn’t want something too serious, so he might’ve just messed everything up by being to needy.

“You and Zayn should go on a double date with me and Louis,” Harry adds as he is cleaning out the coffee maker – his hair pushed back by a green bandana this time.

“That sounds fun,” Liam says, but Harry can sense the sarcasm in Liam’s voice and chuckles.

“Or we can just have a foursome if you’re into that kind of stuff!” Harry jests – butt bumping into Liam.

The lady that Liam is taking the order from looks genuinely appalled and Liam smiles an apology at her through red cheeks. “Harry! I’m sorry, ma’am, he doesn’t know what he’s saying half the time.”

Zayn doesn’t come at all and Liam is starting to get worried – his mind jumping to different conclusions as to why Zayn wasn’t there.

*

Liam sits in the front of the class because he’s used to it now and there are peers who sit next to him and smile because they want to be next to the “smart” guy who answers questions, but there are those who steer clear of him. The blondes and the brunettes who give him judgmental or jealous looks that he just shrugs off because he knows that he’s doing something right if they’re judging him.

He looks at his notes again and looks at the highlights in his “Maus” book going over important topics and themes in his head; he’s really excited to be reading The Walking Dead in the upcoming weeks even though it’s not the complete series. Zayn saunters in and Liam smiles at him – the routine smile they exchange to each other, but Zayn doesn’t look at him. Perrie doesn’t either, but he doesn’t care about that. Zayn avoids his gaze entirely, and Zayn looks tired with bags underneath his eyes and his hair a little more frazzled than usual. He had let his facial grow out a little bit more (usually sexy), but he just looks haggard now.

Even though he’s wearing a blue oxford shirt underneath a tan overcoat, there’s just something off about the way he looks even though he’s still dressed the same. Liam doesn’t know what it is, but all he wants to do is come up to Zayn and give him the biggest hug because he figures he recognizes the way Zayn slumps when something’s bothering him.

Liam tries to gets Zayn’s eyes to focus on his, but it seems that Zayn avoids it throughout the whole class and even when Zayn asks questions to the class, he doesn’t call on Liam. Liam doesn’t know what he did wrong, but he must’ve done something wrong and he just wants to apologize to Zayn.

There was an awkward incidence where the only one to raise their hand was Liam and Zayn had no choice but to call on him, but he didn’t even look at Liam when he said his name. Liam bit his lip and answered the question expecting Zayn to praise him like he always does, but he just nods and moves on.

Liam’s not sure what he should feel. He’s confused, hurt, and even a little bit annoyed because can’t quite figure out what he did wrong.

Zayn ends class early and Liam waits until everyone’s out the door, but Perrie lingers behind while Zayn is still putting his stuff away. He doesn’t know what to do; he doesn’t want to talk about his relationship with Zayn while Perrie is there, so he just sighs and leaves – not looking at Zayn when he does.

When he walks out, Liam is doing his best to not bite his lip so hard and decides to text Zayn, _is there anything wrong??_

Liam doesn’t feel like going to his other classes, so he just saunters home – his head down looking at his shoes will nibbling on the string of his jacket. He doesn’t enjoy the cool breeze of November turning into December. He doesn’t enjoy the way his shoes crunch on golden leaves as he walks through an area filled with trees laced with brown leaves. Liam is still checking his phone, swears that he feels vibrations in his pocket, but the text doesn’t come.

He decides that he doesn’t want to come home to a worried Niall, so he stalls and goes into the library – goes up the highest floor and sits at one of the window seats. He opens his textbooks and tries to study, but he can’t help but check his phone every five minutes, then every ten minutes. He finally works up the courage to text Zayn a second time because he doesn’t care if he’s annoying, he just wants to know what he did wrong.

_R we still up for Friday :D?_

He hesitates – not sure if he should put the smiley as if nothing’s wrong. He looks at it a few times and presses the send button before thinking much more of it.

The text comes ten minutes later – not that Liam was counting or anything. Liam frowns at his phone when all he sees is: _Can’t, swamped with assignments. x_

So that’s it then, Liam thinks – frustrated enough to throw his phone, but decides against it because he can’t afford to buy a new one. Zayn is officially blowing him off – he has half the mind to be angry at Zayn, but he just feels a slight sense of wooziness and emptiness. He doesn’t notice how hard he’s biting his lip until he tastes metal. He just wished he knew what he did wrong.

*

Normally, Liam would run to clear his mind in the mornings, but he’s slept so much yesterday that he almost missed his shift at the coffee shop. He wakes up and frantically checks his phone through heavy lidded eyes and realizes that Zayn hasn’t texted to apologize or tell Liam what was wrong, so Liam just has to face that maybe Zayn was tired of Liam, or that maybe Zayn didn’t want Liam, or the most rational excuse – that Zayn couldn’t see Liam and that he chose his career over Liam.

That last part made at least some sense to Liam, but it didn’t make sense why Zayn just couldn’t tell Liam that. Or if Perrie threatened to tell someone, Zayn could’ve at least told Liam the situation. But Zayn hadn’t, Zayn just left him clueless, and Liam began to think that maybe Liam valued Zayn more than Zayn valued him. After all, Liam was a college student and Zayn is way above his league – he’s so above Liam’s league that Liam’s league was like a dot in Zayn’s eyes.

Liam is still frustrated, he just wished he had an explanation, but it’s only Thursday and Liam had to work.

He opens without Harry today, and he’s okay with that. He’s not sure he can hide his feelings with Harry and Harry was getting increasingly lovey-dovey with Louis, and he doesn’t think he can deal with that right now.

Danielle doesn’t even bother him, and he just goes through his work shift on automatic. He expects Zayn to be there, but is not surprised when he isn’t.

*

On Friday, Liam goes to Zayn’s class – does the awkward dance of avoiding each other’s gazes. Zayn doesn’t call on Liam because Liam doesn’t raise his hand.

Zayn seems better now – still dressed perfectly, but he shaved today and combed his hair to the side. He’s smiling more than he did on Wednesday, and that hurts Liam more than the avoidance. Perhaps Liam was right – that this, whatever their relationship was, meant more for Liam than it had for Zayn. He feels a sort of lingering, and he doesn’t know what he misses more. The smell of Zayn’s cologne or the way Zayn’s lips tasted like cherries and warmth.

He shakes his head at that thought – cursing himself for even thinking of Zayn like that when Zayn is obviously attending to his class and smiling more and nodding enthusiastically when the blonde says something correctly.

He can’t take it anymore and decides to leave in the middle of class as quietly as possible.

*

He decides that it’s not the kisses that he misses most or the way Zayn smells like cinnamon and spices; it’s the proximity of Zayn – the way his heart gets heavy and his knees get weak. The way he’s still nervous when Zayn looks at him, he decides that that’s what he misses most because of all the times Zayn has looked at him before whatever happened between them made him melt, but now there’s a distance and an emptiness behind Zayn’s hazel eyes whenever he accidentally looks at Liam. Liam decides that he should feel bitter or angry for no sense of closure even after weeks of not talking to Zayn, but all he feels is hollow.

He still attends Zayn’s class though because he really likes Zayn’s topics and it got increasingly interesting when they were reading “The Walking Dead”. The discussion gets especially heated near the end of November as trees are now bare. There’s no sun anymore as the clouds linger a little bit longer now – casting the uni campus in hues of grey. Liam’s thankful that it hasn’t rained or snowed yet because he hates trekking through that weather. Zayn’s in a black leather jacket, grey jeans, and converse shoes – a little bit more casual than usual.

“So how does Rick Grimes deal with his wife’s death?” Zayn asks the class – sitting on the desk like he usually does. Zayn smiles a lot more now, and he doesn’t have bags underneath his eyes anymore. Liam should be upset, but he’s happy that at least one of them seem to be moving on. It’s still bad sometimes, Liam thinks, when he reads for Zayn’s class and wants to immediately text Zayn, but he doesn’t. He thought it would get easier being away from Zayn – not talking to him at all at once, but it’s not easy because Liam still thinks of Zayn. He still misses Zayn’s voice or the way Zayn says his name. It’s all very melodramatic, Liam thinks. He still thinks of what Zayn would say if Liam says something, and it’s ridiculous because he barely even knows Zayn. Barely even gotten to know Zayn for three months before it was over.

Time doesn’t justify how he feels and that is unfair.

“He goes crazy,” one of the girls in the back suggests.

“Okay,” Zayn smiles patiently, “But how does he go crazy – for a lack of a better word.”

A guy raises his hand, “Well, he starts to have conversations with her over the telephone when she’s clearly dead.”

Zayn snorts, “Clearly. But why does he talk to her on the phone? Why does he feel the need to talk to a dead person.”

And this is completely obvious to Liam, but everyone in the class remains silent. Until a girl raises her hand, “He’s delusional, Professor, he’s just plain delusional.”

Liam rolls his eyes at her. Zayn laughs a little, “Not exactly the answer I wanted to hear, anyone else?”

And no one raises their hand, so Liam decides that he should. He decides that he should school these kids like he has done all quarter. It was almost as if Zayn had forgotten that they were not talking because right when Zayn calls on Liam, Liam can see the regret in his eyes and Liam winces, but he is going to speak, goddamnit.

“I don’t think he’s delusional at all,” He starts, “I think, that, if the person you loved just stopped talking to you or in this case, dies, you’re going to want to hear their voice because you miss them – even if they’re angry at you or even if they’re just going to say that it’s over, you still need that sense of, what’s the word, closure. And Rick didn’t get that; he didn’t get closure. Rick loved her, and the next minute, there was only silence, and so Rick would do anything to hear her voice again. He’s not delusional, he was just in love,“ Liam looks at him with an expression of desperation, “Is that what you wanted to hear?”

The class doesn’t say anything for a minute, and Liam can feel hot tears in his eyes. He doesn’t want to be here. He doesn’t want to be here at all, so he packs up his stuff and leaves. He doesn’t care that he is making a scene, but he thinks that this what he needed – he needed to tell Zayn in the best way possible even though he wasn’t sure he loved Zayn, but he knew that he never felt this way for someone before as inexperienced as he was.

*

Liam doesn’t attend Zayn’s classes anymore. He writes his final essay and he avoids everyone – spends late hours at the library and gets back to his room when he knows that Niall is asleep in his bed.

He uses the excuses that final exams are coming up to take the week off, but he actually just wants to avoid Harry because Harry looks at him with puppy dog eyes and he also can’t handle that.

He decides to finish Zayn’s final paper early, and the next thing he knows he is at Zayn’s office again. This time, he doesn’t feel anything but red hot anger.

He doesn’t even knock, and just walks in and puts his paper on his desk. Zayn looks up from his papers and doesn’t even bother to take off his earphones. Zayn has an unreadable expression on his face and Liam thinks that if he doesn’t do this now, he probably won’t work up the courage to do it ever.

“Here’s my final paper,” Liam says with steel resolve, “And here’s a check for half of what you paid for my tuition.” Zayn looks at the check. He doesn’t pick it up, and just looks back at Liam with an expression that Liam thinks is sadness, but he’s not sure. He’s not sure of anything anymore except the fact that he doesn’t want to deal with this anymore, “I can’t afford to pay you any more, but I’ll give it to you when I can. So I don’t have to owe you anything anymore.” Liam doesn’t cry even though he wants to.

“Liam,” Zayn pleads. He still hasn’t gotten up from his desk. There used to be a time when Zayn saying his name would make him nervous, but all he feels is anger now.

“No,” Liam says, “You don’t get to say anything. There were days, weeks even, when all I wanted was for you to talk to me again because you were so much better than me and so much greater than me and that it’ll all be okay if you just talked to me, but now I get it. I finally get it.”

He says as he walks out the door. He stops in the middle of the doorway, “I used to be able to think that if I tried a little harder, be a little less dumber, that one day you can look pass how ordinary I am and allow me into your life, but I was wrong. You’re Zayn Malik, comic book writer, professor, and I am Liam – the boy who you felt sympathy for and had to pay off his tuition. I don’t know what you wanted from me, but I’m done.”

He smiles forcefully at Zayn, “You know, there used to be a time when I wouldn’t know what to say to you – or that I would choke on my words and my hands would sweat and I would be so nervous, but now, I guess I can thank you for giving me the ability to speak to you without caring how’d I sound.” Liam leaves before Zayn can say anything because Liam doesn’t want to hear it anymore.

*

Liam finds that he’s actually really good at pretending everything’s okay; he didn’t know he had it in him because he goes through the motions with Niall. It’s also because Niall is so swamped in his finals that he doesn’t care much for Liam unless Liam is holding food in his hand. On an especially tiring day, he got home to the sight of Niall asleep at his desk with a half-eaten sandwich in his mouth.

He chuckled at that.

"

There are times where he still thinks of Zayn, but he realizes doesn’t have time to dwell on it.

It was the day of his last final when he gets home to a celebrating Niall with a beer in one hand and Nando’s in the other. He smiles as Niall passes him a beer and he’s happy, he thinks – happy when he pushes the dull ache of Zayn aside.

“Oh yeah,” Niall says, “There’s a package for you that I picked up.” Niall puts down his beer and shakes a square package with one hand, “Open it, open it, open it, Liam.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t open it,” Liam says sipping his beer and grabbing the package – there’s no return address, “You know, because of your lack of personal space issue.”

Niall just chuckles and hovers closely to Liam as Liam rips open the package. His mother doesn’t send him anything; she can’t afford to. He wonders who this is from.

Inside is a comic book that Liam has never seen before. In the front, he sees a young man with a huge cape red behind him. His face looks directly at the reader. It says First Edition on it, and at the top, Liam couldn’t help, but smile at the big comic book letters that said, “The Heroic Adventures of Liam!”

“Whoa,” Niall says with food in his mouth, “He kinda looks like you.”

And now that Liam really looks at the superhero plastered on the front, he can see the resemblance. He’s not sure if he should be upset, but he is just too excited to feel anything else. He knows he has a wide grin on his face as he turns to the first page. In small black letters, it said: _“Dedicated to the potential firefighter who lit a fire in my own heart.”_

Liam already guessed who this is from, but he doesn’t know what to do. The next thing Niall knows, Liam is sprinting out the door with comic book in hand.

He finds himself in front of Zayn’s office – pounding at the door.

Zayn opens it, his eyes widen as he sees Liam on the other side. He blushes a little, and Liam is still breathing really hard, “What is this?”

“I decided that,” Zayn breathes, “I thought, I had this whole thing ready, Liam. I had this whole speech ready. I wanted to quit. I told Perrie that I was going to quit. I had thought that I wanted this career,” Zayn steps backwards a little bit, “But I didn’t without you. You make me nervous, Liam. You’re not like the other people I used to date – you are genuine and nice and you looked at me as if I was worth something – that I was more than my comic books and my title. Like, I don’t know what to say and I usually know what say, but I don’t even like coffee and I hate running, but I pretended to run on Saturdays just to see you.”

“We barely knew each other,” Zayn continues, “But I knew that I liked you a lot and that scared me. So when Perrie threatened to tell administration, I decided that I thought I could just avoid you and that we’d both forget that it would happen.”

“Zayn,” was all Liam could muster out.

“No,” Zayn chuckled a little as he brushed his hand through his own hair, “No, you got to say this amazing speech about how much you hate me a week ago, and now it’s my turn. I want my career, but I also want you, so I’m just having a really shitty time dealing with everything, and I didn’t have you to ground me. But I just want to kiss you right now, is that okay?”

Liam closes the gap between them and kisses Zayn hard. His hands are on Zayn’s hips because he misses the way that feels, and Zayn’s fingers are digging into Liam’s back as Liam pushes Zayn back onto his desk. Liam missed this – the feeling of Zayn’s chapped lips tasting like cherry on his. The way Zayn smells like a hint of smoke mixed with his cologne sends Liam over the edge.

Liam pulls away and smiles, “What now?”

“We do it right,” Zayn whispers, “And you’re technically not my student anymore.”

Zayn leans in for another kiss and Liam looks at Zayn with furrowed eyebrows, “So does this mean I don’t have to pay you back?”

“There are other ways you can pay me back,” Zayn smiles with a wink.

Liam takes a second and then his eyes widen and he mouths an “Oh.” He can feel the redness spreading across his face and lighting his ears on fire.

Before Liam has a second to act, Zayn locks the door behind him and takes his mouth into a searing kiss, pressing Liam against the door. Liam had dreams about this for so long – the way Zayn’s lips fit against his, feeling the warmth of his breath on his Liam’s tongue.

Zayn is forceful. His mouth presses against Liam as his tongue demands entrance. Liam achingly agrees and before he knows it their tongues are swirling around each other, dancing in a futile battle for dominance. Zayn then moves to light kisses on Liam’s neck, biting whenever he wanted Liam to feel the juxtaposition between gentleness and aggression.

All Liam can do is whimper, feeling like his knees are giving out on him when Zayn grabs at Liam’s wrists to pin on the door. “I wish you could see yourself right now,” he whispers delicately in Liam’s ear before returning to kiss his neck.  
  
Liam doesn’t know what to do, so he allows Zayn to take control. Zayn snakes his hands into Liam’s shirt and feels the warmth of Liam underneath his shirt – all lean muscle and hardened muscles. His hands hold Liam in place as Liam just mutters Zayn over and over again like a mantra he can’t get out of his head. He wants all of Zayn, so he grabs a hold of Zayn’s back and pins him against the wall.

Zayn lets out a grunt, and Liam quickly apologizes and makes circles with his tongue near Zayn’s shoulder. He feels his jeans tighten as the friction between them becomes too much to handle.

Zayn smirks. He positions them correctly so that their dicks are aligned. Liam thrusts against Zayn, eliciting moans from both parties. They establish a shaky rhythm, push and pull and repeat.

Liam loses it, then. His thrusts become more erratic.

“I want you,” he says as he takes off Zayn’s shirt. Liam widens in surprise. Zayn has a lot of tattoos that he has let to explore, he wants to run his tongue across all of them, to taste how the ink feels in his mouth.

Before he can do this, he feels a tug at his shirt, and feels cold hands against his stomach. He looks up at Zayn. He sees Zayn’s eyes widen as his fingers find well-defined abs, “You’re extraordinary,” as he traces Liam’s abs with his thumbs.

Zayn might be admiring a bit too much because the shirt gets caught at Liam’s shoulders. “Sorry,” Zayn mutters and works at taking the shirt off properly.

When his shirt comes off, Liam starts kissing Zayn again and decides that he’ll never get tired of the way Zayn tastes. He’ll never get tired of Zayn’s lips that are slightly chapped and tastes like cherry chapstick. He caresses Zayn’s back, his shoulders, eventually moving to Zayn’s zipper as he feels the length of Zayn.

Zayn let’s out a gasp as Liam begins to massage Zayn through his jeans. Zayn thrusts into Liam’s hand – desperately wanting more.

Liam furrows his brows, “Are you sure?”

Zayn laughs heavily and looks at Liam, “Liam, please, I’m sure.”

That is all Liam needs. Liam gets down on his knees and begins to unbuckle Zayn’s pants. He lays kisses to Zayn’s hips and follows the trail that leads down.

He pulls down Zayn pants and notices that Zayn decided to go commando today. Choking down the need to make a remark, he takes Zayn, enveloping the tip – savoring the taste of how warm Zayn feels and how taking in the distinct smell of Zayn.

He hears a moan as he bobs his head and looks up at Zayn. Zayn’s eyes are already peering down at him. Zayn’s mouth forming an “o” as he sees Liam tongue dancing around the tip.

Liam moves down and begins sucking at Zayn’s balls. Taking each separately, he is rewarded with a strong tug at his hair and a coaxing, “More.” He happily obliges.

He moves back to Zayn’s tip and envelopes him whole. Quickening his pace, Liam can feel Zay thrusting into his mouth. Zayn’s moans almost drives Liam over the edge as he looks at Zayn from this angle. He’s the one ruining Zayn. He’s the one that is sending Zayn over the edge. He can taste Zayn’s precum. He knows Zayn is getting close.

He keeps bobbing his head to try and meet Zayn’s thrusts. Eventually, Zayn’s thrusts become more erratic.

“I’m close,” he hears. With one final thrust, Zayn comes in Liam’s mouth. Liam swallows a sweet bitterness and smiles up at Zayn.

“That was amazing,” Zayn says, as he pulls Liam up. His eyes narrow as he touches the outline of Liam’s dick. “But looks like you need some help, too.”

Liam laughs a little bit more nervous than he wanted to; he wanted Zayn to do this to him – to be his first.

Clad in only his boxers, Liam hears Zayn say “Sit” before being pushed onto Zayn’s desk and feeling his boxers being pulled down.

Zayn’s eyes only widen. “Gods, you’re big,” Zayn says, sounding unsure how he is going to take it all in. Zayn starts his kisses at Liam’s inner thigh – teasing him as he goes ever so slowly. He kisses Liam everywhere, and Liam practically begs.

Zayn smiles deviously, “Zayn, please.”

It was as if Zayn was waiting for that because he goes down Liam’s whole member and coming back up.

Liam throws his head back. Now he gets why everyone loved this so much. And then, Zayn does it again. And _again_.

Liam loses all coherent thought. Overloaded by sensory input, his hands dig into Zayn’s shoulders and he shudders. He’s not sure if he’s muttering Zayn’s names or if his utterances make sense at all because Zayn is good and that’s an understatement. Zayn never misses a beat in taking all of Liam while his hands massage Liam’s balls. The sensations, everything, are becoming too much. He is definitely enjoying this.

He feels Zayn pull at his balls before taking them in his mouth. Zayn sucks on them as he begins jacking Liam off.

Faster, faster, and _faster_ Zayn goes. Liam can’t help but furrow his eyebrows and moan.

Liam can feel himself getting closer and then Zayn looks up at Liam. His hazel eyes staring straight into Liam as he begins bobbing once more.

He looks as Zayn, and he feels incredibly possessive – that Zayn should only do this to him, and that he should only do this to Zayn. Zayn tongue flicks against the tip of Liam’s length as he takes him all in again.

All of his emotions have led him to this point and Liam comes without any warning. Zayn takes it all in and looks up at Liam whose head is rolled and a smile is plastered on his face.

After coming down, he pulls Zayn up to his lap. He holds Zayn close as he looks up, letting out a real laugh.

 “Isn’t it funny?” Liam asks.

“What is?” Zayn looks up at him.

“That were both so afraid of each other, and now we are having sex in your office, Zayn! Sex in your office! It’s the stuff that only happens in dirty comic books.”

**Six Months Later**

“I’m so proud of you,” his mother is embracing him after his graduation ceremony; she’s not even trying to hold in tears. Niall comes up to him and gives him a hug until his parents rushes him off to take pictures with his own family.

He feels arms wrap around him, and he smiles as a familiar face leans on his shoulders, “Congratulations, Li, our love is not taboo anymore.”

Liam lets out a chuckle and kisses Zayn on the cheek – he’ll never get tired of kissing Zayn whenever he wants.

“When do you head off for your training again?” Zayn asks as he rocks Liam back and forth.

“Two months.”

“Good, I can have my real life superhero to myself for a short time.”


End file.
